Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing or whistle when you are happy.
Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.
Do you know what a “territory” is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male, claims as its own. Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species are welcome. Your yard and house are your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away.
If so, you have actually scared the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting（筑巢）season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird’s song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.
Birds sing loudest in the spring when they are trying to attract a mate and warn others not to enter the territory of theirs.
You can see that birds have a language of their own. Most of it has to do with attracting mates and setting up territories.Some scientists believe that most of the time bird’s singing is actually________.
| A．an expression of happiness | B．a way of warning |
| C．an expression of anger | D．a way of greeting |
What does the underlined word “territory” mean?
| A．A place where families of other species are not accepted |
| B．A place where a bird may shout at the top of its voice |
| C．An area for which birds fight against each other |
| D．An area which a bird considers to be its own |
Why do birds keep on singing at nesting season?
| A．Because they want to invite more friends |
| B．Because their singing helps frighten outsiders away |
| C．Because they want to find outsiders around |
| D．Because their singing helps get rid of their fears |
How does the writer explain bird’s singing?
| A．By comparing birds with human beings |
| B．By reporting experiment results |
| C．By describing birds daily life |
| D．By telling a birds story |
“This is the BBC News at Eight O’ Clock.”
…
“Chinese people spent about 120 billion yuan during the first three days of the May Golden Week last year. This year it has increased to 140 billion yuan.”
“The children of Beijing No.2 Middle School sang with students from Toronto in Canada to celebrate the 20thanniversary. They had been sister schools since 1986. They spent about two weeks together in Beijing. They visited the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. They took a lot of photos in Beihai Park.”
“Have you ever got tired of heavy shopping bags? A new shopping assistant robot which was invented by Japanese company could be the answer. The helpful robot can follow you around and carry several bags. The robot was tested at a shopping center in February 2006. ”
“About 500 people from different countries were in the 2006 “Rock Paper Scissors(剪刀)” World Match in Canada. This event was founded in 1842. It is said playing this game is fun, and also a good way to solve problems among people.”
…
“And now it’s time for Morning Music.”The students from Canada and Beijing No. 2 Middle School didn’t ________.
| A．take photos |
| B．visit the Great Wall |
| C．visit the Summer Palace |
| D．have a football match |
This year during the first three days of the May Golden Week, it cost Chinese people ___________ yuan more than that of last year.
| A．260 billion | B．120 billion | C．140 billion | D．20 billion |
Which of the following is not talked about in the news?
| A．The robot can help with shopping bags. |
| B．A Japanese company invented the robot. |
| C．The robot was tested at a shopping centre. |
| D．There are such robots in people’s homes now. |
The underlined word “anniversary” means .
| A．founding |
| B．yearly return of the date of an event |
| C．university |
| D．the new beginning of something important |
Which of the following is a game?
| A．Rock Paper Scissors | B．May Golden Week |
| C．Shopping assistant robot | D．A visit to the school |
At present time, roller skating (滑旱冰) is easy and fun. But many years ago, it wasn’t easy at all. Before 1750, people never tried skating on wheels. That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin’s work was making instruments (工具). In his free time he liked to play the violin. Merlin was a man with many ideas and many dreams. People called him a dreamer.
One day Merlin received an invitation to go to an important party. He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think. He wanted to find a way to make a wonderful entrance at the party. Merlin had an idea. He thought that he would attract a lot of attention if he could skate into the room.
Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll (滚动). Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skate shoes. Merlin was very proud of them. He dreamed of arriving at the party and skating into the room while playing the violin. He was sure that everyone would be very surprised.
On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room, playing his violin. Everyone was really surprised to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skating. He rolled on, playing the violin. Then, with all eyes on him, Merlin hit into a huge mirror on the wall. The mirror broke into many pieces with a very loud noise.
Nobody forgot Merlin’s wonderful entrance after that.The first paragraph tells us that people began to skate on wheels from 1750 because _______.
| A．it is very easy |
| B．it is very exciting |
| C．Joseph Merlin’s instruments |
| D．it is very popular |
People called Merlin a dreamer because ___________. .
| A．he slept and dreamed a lot |
| B．he was full of different ideas and dreams |
| C．he invented the first roller skates |
| D．he always made people’s dreams come true |
___________ made Merlin think of skating on wheels.
| A．Merlin’s work | B．Merlin’s violin |
| C．A huge mirror | D．An important party |
What was Merlin’s problem after he rolled into the room?
| A．He couldn’t stop his roller-skating. |
| B．He couldn’t attract a lot of attention. |
| C．Everyone was surprised at him. |
| D．He couldn’t play the violin while rolling. |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．Joseph Merlin’s Story |
| B．How Roller Skating Was Invented |
| C．A Surprising Entrance to the Party |
| D．Violin and roller skating |
When he was a boy, Tim was much influenced（影响） by the books about the sea, but in fact by the age of fifteen he had decided to become a doctor rather than a sailor. His father was a dentist and as a result, Tim had the opportunity of meeting many doctors either at home or elsewhere. When he was fourteen he was already hanging around the clinic (诊所) of a local doctor where he was supposed to help to wrap up medicine bottles, but was actually trying to listen to the conversations taking place between the doctor and his patients in the next room.
During the war Tim served in the Navy (海军) as a surgeon (外科医生). “That was the happiest time of my life. I was dealing with very real suffering and on the whole making a success of it.” In California he taught the country people simple facts about medicine. He saw himself as a life-saver. He had proved his skills to himself and his ability to take decisions. Thus, while he was able to tell them what to do, he could feel he was saving them. After the war, he got married and chose to be a doctor in the countryside, working under an old doctor who was popular in the area, but who hated the sight of blood and believed that the secret of medicine was faith. This gave the young man many opportunities to go on working as a life-saver.Tim decided to be a doctor when he was________.
| A．fourteen | B．fifteen |
| C．serving in the Navy | D．working in clinic |
Tim decided to become a doctor mainly because________
| A．his father wanted him to be so. |
| B．his father was a surgeon. |
| C．he had read many books about medicine. |
| D．he had chances to know many doctors and know about what doctors did. |
Which of the following is not true?
| A．during the war, Tim was a surgeon in the Navy. |
| B．he taught the country people simple facts about medicine in California. |
| C．after the war, he married the old doctors’ daughter. |
| D．Tim worked as a life-saver after war. |
From the passage we can infer(推出) that Tim_________.
| A．was sent to Europe during the war. |
| B．was not afraid of blood. |
| C．decided to give up his doctor career. |
| D．regarded himself as a life-saver. |
The passage is mainly about________
| A．Tim’s life story | B．Tim’ dreams | C．Tim’s marriage | D．Tim’s patients |
Facebook means never having to say goodbye. The social media website has earned a reputation for reconnecting old friends. Last week，a guy whom I hadn't seen since my bachelor party five years ago sent me a friend request. I accepted and waited for “Easy E” to send me a greeting of some kind. He had sought me out，after all.
I learned from his profile that he was in a relationship and had a son. However，I'm pretty sure we won't ever write wall-to-wall，let alone email each other. But he'll remain a friend of online until one of us makes a point of removing the other from his official list.
My pool of friends consists of family members，college buddies，coworkers from past and present，and friends of friends. There are 35 in all. If I spent some time uploading old email addresses，I'm confident that I could increase my friend count actually.
A person could make a mission out of reconnecting with childhood friends，former classmates，distant cousins, and those one would like to get to know better. And some people can even handle hundreds of onscreen relationships，keeping up with the daily happenings of their small army of companions. After all，there are worse fates than having too many friends.
Thanks to email，the inability to schedule face-to-face meetings no longer means a friendship must come to a close. But even with email，people will lose touch if one or both parties stop writing back. That’s normal. People move from school to school，job to job，city to city. You never have to feel guilty for breaking away.
Every day，the masterminds of Web 2.0 find new ways of making human communication easier. However，convenience can be a crutch(拐杖)．Some things shouldn't be simplified. When it comes to friendship，there can be no shortcuts.According to Paragraph 1，the website is famous because ________.
| A．it has an interesting name of “Facebook” |
| B．it helps people get in touch with old friends |
| C．it can send people a greeting of some kind |
| D．it reminds people of events in the past |
From the second paragraph we can learn that the writer ________.
| A．would write to the friend quite often |
| B．asked the friend to email him |
| C．did get some information about the friend |
| D．would keep in touch with the friend forever |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．There are 35 people in the author's list of friends right now. |
| B．The author communicates with all the 35 friends by emails. |
| C．The list of 35 friends doesn't include the old email addresses. |
| D．It is not difficult for the author to increase his friend count. |
What does the author think of the convenience of communicating online?
| A．The technology could not keep true friendship forever. |
| B．The social website of Facebook means nothing at all. |
| C．There will be no ways of making real friends online. |
| D．People will not lose friends with the help of the Facebook. |
Today, people all over the world are moving out of small villages in the country to go and live in big, noisy cities. They are moving from the peaceful hills, mountains, fields, rivers and streams of the countryside to the busy world of streets, buildings, traffic and crowds. This movement from rural(乡下的) areas to urban areas has been going on for over two hundred years.
In many countries, the main reason people come to live in towns and cities is work. After one or two large factories have been built in or near a town, people come to find work, and soon an industrial area begins to grow. There is usually a_residential_area nearby, too. The families of these workers need schools, hospitals and shops, so many people come to live in the area to provide these services and a city grows.
In every major city in the world, there is a business district where the big companies have their main offices. In the United States, this area is usually in the city center downtown. It is here that you can see many huge skyscrapers(摩天大楼)and office blocks. The people who work here often travel a long way to work each day. Many of them live in the suburbs of the city, far away from the industrial area and the city center. Some suburbs are very pleasant, with nice houses and big gardens. There are usually parks for children to play in and large department stores where you can buy all you need.
But what is the future of the big cities? Will they continue to get bigger and bigger? Perhaps not. Some major cities have actually become smaller in the last ten years, and it is quite possible that one day we will see people moving out of the major cities and back into smaller towns and villages.The underlined phrase “a residential area” means an area________.
| A．where people can buy things |
| B．which is suitable for living in |
| C．where people can do business |
| D．which is near a city center |
Why do people move to live in cities or towns?
| A．Because they can live more comfortably there. |
| B．Because they like noisy life better than peaceful life. |
| C．Because they mainly want to find work there. |
| D．Because they are sure of having a better life there. |
Which of the following statement is NOT true about the business district?
| A．Big companies usually have their main offices in the business district. |
| B．People usually work and live in the business district. |
| C．A business district usually lies in the city center downtown. |
| D．Nearly every major city has its own business district. |